Tell us about them here! "The Hobbits bowed low. 'Most gracious host', said Frodo, 'It was said to me by Elrond Half-Elven that I should find friendship upon the way, secret and unlooked for. Certainly I have found no such friendship as you have shown. To have found it turns evil to great good."

After stalling around and missing this in the theaters, we finally caught up with it last night. It was everything we've heard---an excellent ensemble of British actors playing charming but believable characters in a ditto setting. Since we have Indian relatives, we enjoyed the Indian actors and the scenes in India. Since we're creeping toward the same age as the actors, we enjoyed seeing them face the issues of aging so gracefully.

The movie is SOOO much better than the book, which is grim, dark, and depressing. Kudos to the script-writers and movie-makers who saw the gem of the story below the despair.

Favorite quote: "Everything will come out all right in the end. If it's not all right, it's not the end."

I enjoyed the 2003 version of The Italian Job when it came out so I thought I'd watch the original. And I enjoy Michael Caine a lot. It was very British! :-) (which was the intention, I read) It was fun. I wondered if the position that the character, Mr. Bridger, held in prison was at all realistic or just for fun. I took it as just for fun.

Two names I recognized: Benny Hill and John Le Mesurier who voiced/played Bilbo in the 1981 radio series of LOTR with screenplay by Brian Sibley.

Rango was kind of weird. I enjoy weird to an extent. It had some interesting 'shots' and angles, etc. But the plot wasn't as satisfying as other animated features I've seen.

Good Night and Good Luck was the Mister's choice of a Saturday night flick. I struggled a little with hearing the dialog - we don't have closed captions on the video we stream on Roku. And this film had a lot of lower volume, slightly muttered dialog and a lot of people talking over one another. And I will admit I dozed just a little during the first third of it. For those who don't know, "The film was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov and portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senator's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations." (wikipedia)

I thought, as I watched it, how I viewed movies like this when I was young. I thought people who stood up to things they found unfair to be heroic. I not only admired these people, I wanted to be them. I thought I would be them. The fight was good.

Now, 40 years later, I just find it depressing. Depressing that people got to be so evil. I don't mean to get into a battle of words about what is right or wrong or evil or not. It just seems that some actions people are determined to take are skewed heavily towards controlling others or shaming others or labeling others. Life takes energy. We can spend all we have trying to get our own lives in order. Then we can allot some into making other people's lives better. Why spend it trying to put the screws down on others? Why spend it making people squirm? And to do it while employing dishonest or disingenuous tactics is just even more sad. It doesn't help that we have a politician in our state that acts quite a bit like McCarthy at times. In fact, I watched some of the political news shows the next morning and there that person was... being discussed for the malicious things they've said about other people that just weren't true.

I wanted to watch Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for ages...
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... but haven't gotten around to do so. It's still on my list.

What I did watch, though, is "Last Ride" with Hugo Weaving. If you're into small independent movies that take things slowly it's definitely worth watching. I guess it's not for everyone but I really enjoyed it.

This is such a smart film: An intelligent script with great acting from Joseph-Gordon Levitt, Emily Blunt, Bruce Willis (yes, really) and the boy who plays ... well, the boy in the film.

I love that the inevitable time paradoxes are built into the plot rather than just brushed aside.

There is one gruesome scene - although little is actually shown - but it's crucial to the plot rather than a gratuitous shock.

As well as being one of the best time-travel films, it's one of the best films in general that I've seen this year. I'll get another viewing before it leaves the cinemas. Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..." Dwarves: "Pretty rings..." Men: "Pretty rings..." Sauron: "Mine's better."

"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauronís master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded b*****d with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.

I have been having a Lost frenzy, re-watching seasons 4-6. It's definitely my favourite show ever. As a weird aside, I keep noticing that when John Locke goes bad - very, very bad - he makes what I call the Gollum face. You know that distinctive facial expression?

I had a great time watching FOTR the other night, for the first time in ages, and enjoyed it very much. And I spotted the Gollum face again, when Boromir tried to take the ring from Frodo.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) has been newly re-restored for its 50th anniversary (it was restored already in 1987) and was nationally screened last Thursday in a digital copy that looked superb. It remains a great but flawed film.

I watched a DVD of The Avengers (2012) on Friday. Messy but generally amiable: a somewhat better G.I. Joe.

For much of the time as I watched Looper (2012) at the theater on Saturday, I was unhappily reminded of Payback, the 1999 revenge film starring Mel Gibson: unpleasant characters (including the protagonist in both his incarnations) doing nasty violent thing to one another. However, the ending more than redeems it. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Discuss Tolkien's life and works in the Reading Room! +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= How to find old Reading Room discussions.

As soon as the calendar hits October 1st I start watching horror/ghost/spookyfun movies

First up was Blade starring Wesley Snipes. Nothing overwhelming, but a good vampire / shoot em up / karate flick. I always found it an interesting choice by Marvel to launch their movie franchise with such a relatively obscure Marvel character like Blade, but the movie is entertaining, and was successful enough to launch two sequels.

Next up was a movie that involves Steven Spielberg, Richard Donner, Sean Astin, The Pinchers of Peril, Cyndi Lauper, and pirates....know what it is ?

And finally, The Frighteners. I get a kick out of watching all the familiar names from LOTR go by during the credits of this movie. Obviously not PJ's best work, but a good, fun, ghost story for the Halloween season. It always takes me by surprise to be reminded that Danny Elfman did the music for the film too....

that Lyttelton, where parts of The Frighteners was filmed, was severely damaged in the earthquakes? Nearly all the old buildings that appear in the movie are now gone. I'm not sure about the state of the graveyard, but if the damage was anything like the level that occurred in some Christchurch graveyards, it won't be looking good.

I really like The Frighteners. There's something rather compelling about seeing what looks like the beginnings of the nine...

and it's sad to learn that such beautiful spots no longer exist. Would that include the old house that's central to the movie ? Having lived my entire life in California, I can relate to the devastation earthquakes can cause....unfortunately i've gone through a few rough ones myself, but nothing like the Christchurch one. At least Pete captured it on film forever, and the hearty Kiwi's will rebuild for a new generation...as tough and slow as that may go at times.

Pete's introduction to the director's cut of The Frighteners is indeed fascinating to LOTR fans. He explains that he was experiencing a sense of dread about what to do with the 30 odd computers he was using for the film, when the idea of adapting LOTR to film hit him.....the rest is history as they say. It really is amazing to see the gigantic leap forward WETA took after learning the possibilities of CGI on The Frighteners.

We saw a trailer for this when we rented another movie, and were intrigued. It's about a Yemeni sheikh who wants to bring irrigation to his part of the desert, and incidentally be able to indulge his passion for salmon fishing.

There was a lot to love about this movie; there was a lot of dry humor, and likeable characters.

But the adultery aspect completely ruined it for me. It could have been a sweet love story, except that the two main characters betrayed lovers who didn't deserve it. I guess it was supposed to show how amazing their love story was, but all it did was make me so angry I was in tears at the end, and not in a good way (I love crying during movies, but not because I'm angry.) There was supposed to be a eucatastrophe, and I couldn't appreciate it because of the selfishness of the main characters. Ugh.

I guess I haven't changed much since I was seventeen and had the same reaction to Dr. Zhivago. Maybe that's one reason I just celebrated my 34th wedding anniversary. Uncle Baggins said he didn't approve of the adultery in the movie either.

(I was a little surprised how strong my reaction was. After all, when I watched The Ring of the Nibelung, I didn't have any trouble with Sigmund and Sieglinde's love story, which was not only adulterous but incestuous. But then Sieglinde had been carried off and forced into marriage, so that to me isn't a real marriage.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspondence, with love from Bilbo; on a large wastebasket. Dora was Drogo's sister, and the eldest surviving female relative of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written reams of good advice for more than half a century." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "A Chance Meeting at Rivendell" and other stories

Watched the last two this weekend myself. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars, and so on -- while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man, for precisely the same reasons. -- Douglas Adams

This Clash of the Titans did not stand the test of time very well. GrandPatty1 and I laughed all the way through it. She is studying Greek mythology in school, and I had thought she would enjoy it, but it is pretty goofy by today's standards. We may watch the 2010 remake to see if it is any better.

I am not a fan of the Kate Winslet Titanic, as I'm sure I've said many times here. But I did buy the 3D just to see what 3D done in post production years later could look like in the hands of a dedicated 3D director--James Cameron. My desire was to see what Lord of the Rings "may" be able to look like if converted to 3D. Because Blu-ray.com has given the 3D visuals on Titanic a 5 star rating, saying that it looked better than some films natively filmed in 3D I took the chance. It DOES look awesome! I watched, enthralled, because I love 3D and this picture achieves the depth I would not have believed. I even enjoyed the movie better this time--strange as that may seem. There are no "out of screen effects" but the depth is awesome. I look forward to seeing LotR done that way if it happens. Of course, the color problems will also need to be addressed.

Call the Midwife continues to be a most enjoyable series. Up/Down, not so much. I really can tell why it is cancelled. Permanent address: Into the West

Finished the first season of HBO's Game of Thrones. *spoilers*
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Well, in spite of myself, I really enjoyed this series and can hardly wait for the next season to come to Netflix. I was prepared to really dislike it, due to all the naked boobs and other appendages bouncing around, and the guts flying, and the arteries spurting, and the heads on pikes. BUT...the story is quite gripping. HBO did a fantastic job of making sure each of the main characters (and there are A LOT of them) has its distinct story and I'm having no trouble at all keeping them straight. The costumes and locations are gorgeous.

By far, the best character is The Imp, or Tyrion Lannister, played by Peter Dinklage. He gets all the best lines and Dinklage plays him as though he were six and a half feet tall--brash, strong and confident. But then we get little flashes of the vulnerability of the character, as really just an unloved son of a tyrannical father, who must look to his older, more handsome and accomplished brother for protection. One of my favorite parts was when Tyrion was bargaining for his life at the Aery, and wanted his brother to fight for him. His brother was at least a day's ride away and the Queen insisted that the fight take place immediately. Tyrion asked the crowd for a champion to fight for him, and no one volunteered. Then, when it seemed like he was done for, a man stepped forward to fight for Tyrion, who had seen some of his gumption and spunk when he was first taken captive, and was inspired to take up his cause. No one was more surprised than Tyrion, and I think these two are going to need each other in future episodes.

I am SMAUG! I kill when I wish! I am strong, strong, STRONG! My armor is like tenfold shields! My teeth like swords! My claws, spears! The shock of my tail, a thunderbolt! My wings, a hurricane! And my breath, death!

My son had read the books years ago and then reread them after watching the first season. He keeps telling me... 'I don't know why I thought Tyrion was a bad guy when I first read the book.' Apparently, having watched Dinklage's most excellent portrayal of the character has caused him to rethink his opinion.